The tradition of slapping a sign at the threshold a tunnel before a football game was said to have started in the 1940’s by the University of Oklahoma’s football coach Bud Wilkenson. The University Of Notre Dame’s Lou Holtz revived the tradition in 1986 where the pre-game act became most known when television cameras were allowed in the tunnel in 1991. The huge yellow ND sign famously read, “Play Like a Champion Today.” The image of helmeted athletes becoming instantly charged as they hit the sign before they barreled into the anticipatory darkness of the tunnel was a powerful image. I got hyped just watching it. I imagine it was a hundred times more invigorating for the athletes themselves.

And I thought: why couldn’t we have our own, similar tradition at CFLA? We’re an energetic group as it is, but what if slapping our own sign — a sign that expressed our own mission — channeled our enthusiasm into an intention? And that intention pumped us up to train better and with more of a connection to each other?

I see the sign as a declaration. It’s a pact explicitly made. It’s a bow of respect to the gym and what we stand for. And with a good thwack on the sign, a bond is solidified that when we enter that space to train, we’re gonna give it all we got, not just for ourselves, but for those around us.

The sign means something – or at least we hope it does. It does to us. If nothing else, it’s the start of a great CFLA tradition to simply get you pumped for your workout.